Live Review: SBTRKT, Movement

Movement warmed up the crowd before SBTRKT at the Enmore Theatre last night.

The Sydney-based trio created a moody but electric atmosphere with tracks from their first EP, including Ivory and Like Lust. Movement have a real talent for effortlessly layering beautiful vocals, synth and deep bass, and forging a huge sound. They covered Let Me Love You by Mario (and spliced it with Baby Bash’s Suga Suga), creating a beautiful early 2000s layer cake of awesome tunes that the audience loved. If these guys are not on your radar already, they should be.

SBTRKT brought gravitas and diversity during his set while still keeping the audience completely energised. The UK producer played a great mix of tracks from his 2011 self-titled album, and from 2014’s Wonder Where We Land, balancing crowd favourites and exploring the space with new sounds.

One of the best things about this masked mastermind is his ability to showcase a diverse range of sounds and subgenres within his music. SBTRKT mixed crisp synth, heavy bass and a righteous amount of cowbell. Sampha was also on hand providing vocals for a few favourite tracks like Something Goes Right and Hold On, which had the floor shaking and the crowd going wild.

The lighting was a standout aspect of the show that people might not have fully experienced during his set at Falls Festival – the lights were a really integral part of the whole performance, and noticeably complemented the music. Often at gigs you don’t consciously experience that other dimension, but the lasers, alongside the animated projections of forests, monsters and greyscale faces made for a completely absorbing experience. The two cohesively created an almost otherworldly atmosphere and soundscape during the show that had the crowd enthralled.

There were peaks and troughs (as you would expect for an artist with as much variety as SBTRKT), and the introspective moments such as Higher were balanced out with drum-heavy tunes New Dorp. New York, and classics like Wildfire, which absolutely went off. SBTRKT played a lengthy remix of Radiohead’s Lotus Flower, the crowd sweating up a storm, before he finished off the night with Right Thing To Do, channelling Euro club vibes and of course, featuring more cowbell (because everything needs more cowbell). Be sure to catch him next time he’s in town – SBTRKT is an experience not to be missed.